Jakob Erzberger: Europe's Forgotten Pioneer Season 2 | Episode 26
The work that began here in Tramelan, though small,
would spread much further than this small country church.
The believers here desired to follow God's Word
and they kept the seventh-day Sabbath as the Bible taught.
Their paths would eventually cross with Jakob Erzberger
who was a young man studying for the ministry.
Often overlooked, his work was nonetheless vital
in the early establishing of the church here on this continent.
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Born in 1843 in Seltisberg in Switzerland, he grew up in poverty.
His father died while he was young
and his mother did her best to raise the four sons that she had.
In 1864 he decided to go and study and train to be a minister
at one of the seminaries in Basel.
While he was studying there he also worked in a nearby prison to support himself.
And one of the prisoners there told him
about a strange group of people in Tramelan who kept the Sabbath.
Deciding to go there to teach them the correct day of worship,
he himself, after he arrived, was convicted to keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
He stayed on for a few weeks,
studied a little bit more, and then was baptized in a nearby lake.
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In 1868 he decided to pastor a small group here in Tramelan.
This was not an easy task.
The group here was under the impression
that they were the only ones in the world holding on to these beliefs,
as Czechowski had not told them
about the large established church in North America.
When they realized that they were part of a bigger church,
they sent Erzberger over to Battle Creek to establish contact.
Despite speaking no English, he bravely journeyed over
and was received warmly into the home of James and Ellen White.
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After instruction by James White and others,
he was ordained in 1870 at a campmeeting in South Lancaster, Massachusetts
and commissioned to do missionary work in Europe
and became the first European Seventh-day Adventist pastor.
When J. N. Andrews arrived in Europe in 1874
as the first official missionary that the church sent out,
he already had a dependable co-worker and guide in place.
Erzberger also produced the first German Seventh-day Adventist tracts
that the young church distributed,
and also founded the first German Adventist Church in 1875 in Vohwinkel.
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Erzberger also assisted Conradi after he was sent here to Europe in 1886,
but he also became a successful preacher in his own right.
He held fruitful prophecy seminars in the various big cities
such as Zurich, Basel, Bern, and Lausanne.
For many years he was the only Adventist preacher
taking care of the German-speaking churches in Switzerland,
and after his wife died at the relatively young age of 53 in 1903,
he spent most of his time working in Germany.
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Finally, worn out by illness
and the sacrificial lifestyle of being a pioneer missionary,
he died in 1920.
His colleague, Conradi, wrote about him after his death,
'Without seeking his own honor
he gave his utmost in seeking souls in the typical "Swiss way”—
direct and to-the-point.
Even as a senior worker, he was always willing to work under a younger man.
He did not seek his own. He was no position seeker.
Leading people to Jesus was for him the most important holy work.
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Often forgotten, the work of Europe's first ordained missionary
was vital to the new church in its early days.
Here was a man who was already committed to ministry
but when he unexpectedly came in contact with new truths,
he honestly followed God's Word
and committed himself to a new and often difficult mission.
Today God is looking for honest people,
people who will see what God's Word says
and will adjust and change their lives accordingly.
May we have such an attitude and spirit in our lives.